On April 22, terrorists with links to Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment sought to destabilise a hard-won peace in Jammu and Kashmir, derail political and economic revival in the Union Territory, and grievously wound India’s body politic. This country is still processing the grief and anger from the death of 26 people — all of them tourists, except one — in Pahalgam. At this moment, the response in Srinagar and New Delhi has been reassuring. The Union government’s diplomatic strike has been firm while leaving room, if and when needed, for a calibrated escalation. Be it cutting the staff at the Indian High Commission in Pakistan by half, or expelling Pakistani diplomats and closing the border at Attari-Wagah, or suspension of the Indus Water Treaty — these steps, the strongest since 2019,........

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